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Public

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising. In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field. Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onwards, it has suffered in more recent years from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder.
The name "public" originates with the Latin "populus" or "poplicus", and in general denotes some mass population in association with some matter of common interest. So in political science and history, a public is a population of individuals in association with civic affairs, or affairs of office or state. In social psychology, marketing, and public relations, a public has a more situational definition. John Dewey defined a public as a group of people who, in facing a similar problem, recognize it and organize themselves to address it. Dewey's definition of a public is thus situational: people organized about a situation. Built upon this situational definition of a public is the situational theory of publics by James E. Grunig, which talks of nonpublics, latent publics, aware publics, and active publics.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Public

pub′lik, adj. of or belonging to the people: pertaining to a community or a nation: general: common to or shared in by all: generally known.—n. the people: the general body of mankind: the people, indefinitely: a public-house, tavern.—ns.Pub′lican, the keeper of an inn or public-house: (orig.) a farmer-general of the Roman taxes: a tax-collector; Publicā′tion, the act of publishing or making public: a proclamation: the act of printing and sending out for sale, as a book: that which is published as a book, &c.—ns.pl.Pub′lic-bills, -laws, &c., bills, laws, &c. which concern the interests of the whole people; Pub′lic-funds, money lent to government for which interest is paid of a stated amount at a stated time.—ns.Pub′lic-house, a house open to the public: one chiefly used for selling beer and other liquors: an inn or tavern; Pub′lic-institū′tion, an institution kept up by public funds for the public use, as an educational or charitable foundation; Pub′licist, one who writes on or is skilled in public law, or on current political topics; Public′ity, the state of being public or open to the knowledge of all: notoriety; Pub′lic-law (see International).—adv.Pub′licly.—adjs.Pub′lic-mind′ed, -spir′ited, having a spirit actuated by regard to the public interest: with a regard to the public interest.—ns.Pub′licness; Pub′lic-opin′ion, the view which the people of a district or county take of any question of public interest; Pub′lic-pol′icy, the main principles or spirit upon which the law of a country is constructed; Pub′lic-spir′it, a strong desire and effort to work on behalf of the public interest.—adv.Pub′lic-spir′itedly.—n.Pub′lic-spir′itedness.—n.pl.Pub′lic-works, permanent works or improvements made for public use or benefit.—Public health, the department in any government, municipality, &c. which superintends sanitation; Public holiday, a general holiday ordained by parliament; Public lands, lands belonging to government, esp. such as are open to sale, grant, &c.; Public orator, an officer of English universities who is the voice of the Senate upon all public occasions; Public school (see School).—In public, in open view. [Fr.,—L. publicus—populus, the people.]